Blatant historical inaccuracies can destroy my enjoyment of a film. The idea of Wild Bill Hickok and Crazy Horse joining forces would usually be enough to make me want to avoid a certain film. But The White Buffalo is concerned with myth and legend, dreams and visions. J. Lee Thompson creates a foreboding fearscape out of the snowy wastes of the West, a setting which is much too often ignored by filmmakers and writers. Haunted by dreams of a giant white buffalo, Hickok sets out to kill this mythical monster. However, the white buffalo is also being pursued by Crazy Horse. The white buffalo had killed his daughter while rampaging through his camp. His sorrow and tears over her death resulted in his elders taking away his name and replacing it with the title "worm" until he can kill the White Buffalo and wrap his daughter in its hide. What could have been a very silly film was actually a surprisingly effective fantasy thriller. Much attention is given to various shootouts where Wild Bill and Crazy Horse intelligently use the terrain to gain the upper hand. Also, the white buffalo becomes a true specter of fear and death. Part of this has to do with how Thompson never lets us see all of the buffalo in a single shot. We see his side profile, head, and horns in various disjointed shots. But we are almost never allowed to comprehend where the buffalo is in comparison to his surroundings. He becomes like the monstrous Jaws; capable of appearing wherever and whenever he wants to strike at helpless victims. The White Buffalo is now one of my favorite mythical creatures in the Old West. If I ever write a Western, you can be sure that somewhere inside of it there will be a White Buffalo.
7/10
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